Last year the Kansas City Royals shocked the baseball world with an epic playoff run. It was the Royals first playoff appearance since 1985, and they battled all the way to the World Series.
They beat Oakland by a score of 9-8 in extra in innings during the Wild Card round, and then swept the AL West Champion Angels and AL East Champion Orioles in the ALDS and ALCS.
MLB.com analyst Jim Duquette identified three team’s who could achieve similar success this season. Number one on Duquette’s list was the New York Mets.
Here’s his analysis.
“Manager Terry Collins recently had a meeting with his veteran players, all of whom had five or more years of service time, and there were only six who fit the criteria. The kind of youth the Mets have is usually a good formula for a breakout season.”
“Of course, they will need to rely on veteran hitters such as Michael Cuddyer, Curtis Granderson, Daniel Murphy and especially a healthy David Wright to improve upon last season’s below-average offense. The good news is that new hitting coach Kevin Long has brought a more aggressive approach with him and the lineup has shown a vast improvement, at least during Spring Training.”
“The Mets’ rotation should be deep, thanks to the healthy return of Matt Harvey, who will pair with Regining National League Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom at the top. The Mets have plenty of Power arms in Minors, such as Noah Syndergaard and Steven Matz, who will help overcome the loss of Zack Wheeler to Tommy John elbow surgery, and the bullpen appears to be better balanced after general manager Sandy Alderson was aggressive earlier this week in acquiring two left handed on the same day (Alex Torres from San Diego and Jerry Blevins from Washington).”
“The concerns are poor team defense and major troubles against the Nationals, against whom the Mets have gone 15-41 over the past three years while playing above .500 against everyone else last season. But if the Mets are aggressive in making in-season upgrades and build upon their positive results from Spring Training, they could make their first playoff appearance since 2006.”
This is something I keep hearing more and more lately in mainstream media which is great to see and validates all of our enthusiasm for this year’s team.
